Dell Products Inc.

Steven Richard Ethridge

Bhyrav M Mutnury

Sandor Tibor Farkas

Ching-Huei Chen

Back drilling vias of a PCB, including: identifying a particular diameter of a particular via of multiple vias of the PCB; back drilling of the particular via with a first drill bit having a first diameter, the first diameter a first percentage greater than the particular diameter of the particular via; determining whether the first diameter of the first drill bit is a threshold percentage greater than the particular diameter of the particular via; determining that the first diameter of the first drill bit is less than the threshold percentage greater than the particular diameter of the particular via, and in response: back drilling of the particular via with a second drill bit having a second diameter, the second diameter a second percentage greater than the particular diameter of the particular via, the second diameter greater than the first diameter.

Back drilling vias of a printed circuit board

A circuit board may include a plurality of electrically-conductive layers separated and supported by layers of insulating material laminated together and a via electrically coupled to a first layer of the circuit board and coupled to a second layer of the circuit board, the via comprising a first via portion comprising electrically-conductive material and having a first diameter and a first depth from a surface of the circuit board and a second via portion comprising electrically-conductive material and having a second diameter smaller than the first diameter and a second depth from the first depth.

Systems and methods for maximizing signal integrity on circuit boards

A printed circuit board (PCB) includes a plurality of layers and electronic components connected to its top surface. The PCB also includes a plurality of trace layers, each located at a respective depth within the layers of the PCB. A plurality of vias provide signal pathways for the trace layer. Upon their manufacture, the vias include a stub portion not necessary for the signal pathways and causing degradation of the integrity of these signal pathways. Embodiments mill the bottom of the PCB to form a variable-depth cavity. The different milling depths of the variable-depth cavity are selected to remove the stub portions of the plurality of vias and the dielectric material between the stubs. By configuring the PCB power planes as the topmost trace layers, decoupling capacitors may be located at the greatest depth of the variable-depth cavity, thus reducing the loop inductance in the power circuit of the PCB.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Steven Richard Ethridge